104 , , I I I J 1 1 /k-J \v I I Crom the Royal York, most everything in IDronto is at hand. For busIness, rToronto's major office towers are connected underground For pleasure fine dining, entertainment and shoppIng are right CP Hotels ( Inside or just s eps awa Direct aJIport bus to our Ova 0 door. ReselVatlOnS 1-800-828-7442 In N.Y State. 100 FrontSUeetWest, Toronto 1-800-462-7472. Or call your travel agent OntanoM5jlE3 (416)863-6333 --- ---- tft.-,A"1fiI'w/"':.. :.". t .". -...y..... .... ,;;;""- N t..", ",'" -: ....,,,, -:; .,:; -;. '**' 060/w::.......... N \., ,,",.,. \... C ù\\'-Je ðE. \ ý Ò e'ý...e O r \,)\S",e d\e SS E. r oS\ Ò\$\\(\9 \{\ a.t' e 9 0 \6 þ-\E. P e \ e fI' \\_bO'1- eò \(\e-\\(\\5 \ $'\ ' \y\E. Ù\.. \ ó \ \)Û a.{\'l \ò \O -ø\\ab (a\ \\ \o{ \\(\\s: 9\\\'3 ò ate I J 'l-JO t "e 2 Ò go\\). otÒ\{\ . u( cof\S\ e(\\ \f\ \\,\e \e S \to((\ \: 'Q{Ùsf\e a.v.. e e \t \Ó "E,.'1-ca. \ n\f\S\{U\1' s a(\Ó s\ \0 of\e \\; r'l \Jet's {f\ $ ate sO 'l-l{\\\ \\f\\s\,\e $,:>00 aotÒ\{\a: S\{ù('(\0(\ -ø(\e '1-ca\ ( ;e(\\e\. '1-\{( \\\(\9 \(\ \)\a.\e ò '\'a uf \tC: '^efe'-Jet \\'('\0 E,.'1. Ca \ ..\ \ @ \ \..1 0 # t-ftf \C p.. to w nte or ;.; p..rtte t1C3 \:;.\. 3'1$ tor neW W cr 3ttt19 MAY 10, 1982 tion sooner or later when they are talking about Yaz. He looked about thirty. He is forty-two, however, and this was the beginning of his twenty- second season with the Red Sox. "Sure, I remember," he said, re- sponding to my question. "Opening Day in 1961 was right here, and it was the same kind of day-sort of cold and gray. I played left field. Ray Her- bert pitched for Kansas City, and I had a single off him. My first game and my first hit. I think Bill Monbou- quette went for us. How did I feel? I felt good-just the way I feel now. Hoping to stay away from injuries. I wanted to play bal1." I knew about the hit off Ray Her- bert, for almost every Yastrzemski sta- tistic has become famous by now. His personal records take up an entire page in the Red Sox press guide, and every time he steps onto the field or comes up to bat this year there will be the same silent clicking of season stats, league stats, and lifetime stats that has ac- companied him everywhere for the last few summers The 1982 home opener would be his three-thousand-and- sixty-second game-more games than anyone else has ever played in the American League, and second only to Hank Aaron's lifetime three thousand two hundred and ninety-eight. On that day in Boston, he stood tenth among all players-all players, ever- in hits, fourth in at-bats, seventh in total bases, eleventh in extra-base hits, and sixteenth In homers (four hundred and twenty-seven). And so on. Yaz has said that 1982 might be his last year of baseball; he'd wait and see how it went, and then decide. Fair enough. We shook hands, there in the club- house, and I wished him good luck- surely adding to his longest lifetime stat of all. Manager Ralph Houk was sitting in the Boston dugout, with his paws bur- ied in the pockets of his warmup jack- et. He gave me a damp, tobacco-brown smile in response to my poll and said, "Yankee Stadium. April of 1947. I didn't play-I was about the third- string Yankee catcher-but, my God, how exciting it all was. I'd never seen that many people at one time before in my life. I hadn't been off the farm for long, and most of the games I'd played in up to then were in the old Western Association-places like Topeka, I mean. I remember looking up at all the people in that steep upper deck at the Stadium and wondering why they didn't fallout of the stands and down onto the field."